Unlike Nobilo, Wagner works without a net. When a live TV audience is involved, there are no mulligans.
“ People ask me how many times we tape different takes. I say,‘ This is a show called Live From and we are live 99 % of the time,’” he said.“ I think people appreciate the difficulty of going out and hitting those shots cold with no script.”
De Jonge thinks that’ s one of the secrets to Wagner’ s appeal. By risking public failure, he makes the highest levels of golf more relatable and accessible to people watching at home.
“ He’ s got the perfect personality for it, where he doesn’ t take himself too seriously, but he also doesn’ t want to look like a clown. I think he’ s found just the right mix,” de Jonge said.“ He understands he needs to hit enough good shots to where people realize,‘ Hey, this guy was very good at one point— he won three times on the PGA Tour.’ He’ s not just some Joe Schmoe out there trying to re-enact these pro shots.”
Success beyond the scorecard
Indeed, Wagner’ s emergence as a social media cult hero has helped a new generation of golf fans gain appreciation for his playing career, which had largely wound down by the time influencers and new media content creators began taking the sport by storm.
The last of his three PGA Tour titles came in the first fullfield event of 2012, when he won the Sony Open in Hawaii by two strokes. Later that year, at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, NBC Sports analyst Peter Jacobsen approached Wagner during a practice round and asked if he’ d be willing to do a quick TV spot.
“ We riffed for about five minutes and it went really well,” Wagner recalled.“ Afterward, he said,‘ I’ m not saying it’ s going to be anytime soon, but you have a future in television when you want it.’ I thought,‘ OK, when things go south with my career, it’ s something I should look into.’”
Limited to part-time competition by a knee injury, Wagner played his final PGA Tour event in Bermuda in 2022. As his agent put out feelers for media opportunities, Wagner landed a fill-in gig at the new PGA Tour Live streaming service, which opened the door to an opportunity with Golf Channel.
More recently, Golf Channel alum Gary Williams approached Wagner about doing a podcast on his fledgling Five Clubs streaming platform. Wagner reached out to de Jonge, and The Wagyu Filet Show was born.
“ Essentially, it started from us sitting around a fire, drinking beer and shooting the [ bull ], which happened many, many times,” de Jonge said with a laugh.
But why“ Wagyu Filet”? In Tour circles, de Jonge goes by the nickname“ Filet,” as in filet mignon. Then during a fill-in appearance on Drew Stoltz and Colt Knost’ s SiriusXM radio show, Stoltz informed Wagner he was going to start referring to him as“ Wagyu.”
“ As soon as he called me that, I knew Brendon and I had a name for the podcast,” Wagner said.“ We do a radio show every Monday night and when people call in, they have to describe what cut of meat they are before they get to ask a question.”
If it seems like Wagner is having a blast with his multimedia career, it’ s because he is.
“ I loved playing, but I love what I’ m doing right now. The game of golf has been so good to me— I tell people I’ ve never really had a job because I caddied in high school and over the summer through college, then I turned pro right out of college and got to the Korn Ferry Tour, then the PGA Tour, then went straight from playing into television,” he said.“ It’ s all been about golf and it doesn’ t feel like work very often.”
Thriving for three decades
For another of his former college teammates, Wagner’ s newfound fame has been the source of some good-natured aggravation. When a reporter reached out to him by text to request an interview about Wagner, Ryan Stinnett initially blew it off because he suspected he was being pranked.
“ I get asked constantly about him. Whenever people find out I played golf at Virginia Tech, they say,‘ Oh, did you play with Johnson?’ And I’ m like‘ God, yes I did,’” Stinnett joked.“ I was getting ready to play golf when I got the text. I read it to my friend and he was in tears laughing:‘ Somebody is messing with you.’ I got on the phone with my brother-in-law and said,‘ You put somebody up to this, didn’ t you?’”
I loved playing, but I love what I’ m doing right now. The game of golf has been so good to me.”— Johnson Wagner
USGA
18 V IRGINIA G OLFER | S EPTEMBER / O CTOBER 2025 vsga. org